Page 20 of Cherry Tree Ranch

I nod because speaking is impossible. I don’t understand what’s happening. I’ve never been stung before, but I know I shouldn’t be collapsed on the ground. Why did I let Dad get to me? Why did I come here without my suit?

“It’s OK – you’re going to be OK,” Cash says, nervously tying his horse’s reins to his saddle horn and dropping next to me in the dirt. “I’m with you. Try to relax.” His reassuring gaze finds mine.

I close my eyes and the hot sting of tears pools between my lashes. Cash brushes sweaty hair from my face and pulls my hand towards him to inspect the red, swollen skin. It feels as wide as my thigh. The warmth of his touch soothes me, and all at once I feel safe, yet terrified. Not of my sting, but of how much I enjoy his hand holding mine.

Cash’s eyes are unreadable as he examines how far the swelling has spread. I try to pull back my arm, self-conscious of my unshaven armpit, but my muscles are like noodles, and my tongue is an egg in my mouth.

“Come on. I’m taking you to the hospital,” he says, pulling me to my feet. “I think you’re having an anaphylactic reaction.”

I avoid his gaze and hold his hand. “Blue,” I mumble and point across the pond to where he wandered.

He grabs the lead rope next to me and runs to Blue, but Blue is tired and won’t follow Cash.

A wave of nausea crashes over me. I drop to my knees. If I wasn’t already nauseous enough from my reaction, the woodsy, pungent aroma of the sagebrush I stumble into takes me over the edge. I vomit.

Cash leaves Blue. He runs to my side and holds me up before my elbows collapse, sending me into a pool of bile. Without asking, he puts one arm behind my shoulders and the other under my legs. He scoops me up and he lifts me on to Luna, his calloused palm tickling the bare skin of my waist between my shirt and shorts. Before I know it, he’s sitting behind me with his chest against my back. He holds a flat hand across my stomach, the reins in the other. I look forward, focusing my hazy vision off into the distance. My body jostled by Luna’s movement makes my stomach turn.

“How…” I start. “How did you know … where I…?” Trying to talk around my tongue is humiliating, but my mind is reeling.

“Your mom said you were on a ride.”

“Why are you—”

“Dahlia, just try to relax, OK?”

I bob up and down in his arms as his horse moves into a gallop. I’d protest the speed, but weakness swallows me whole. My head falls back and his free arm squeezes me tight, keeping me from falling. The wispy white clouds above swirl in circles. I close my eyes, the dizziness feeling like a dream.

Chapter Ten

My body melts into a relaxation I’ve never experienced before, and the voices around me whir with whispers.

Shapes and colours shift into images. I’m mounting a white horse and watching another young woman ride in the arena next to me. Burly men are holding my horse still. The other woman has brown curly hair. She looks focused, worried, and her horse seems downright determined to buck as hard as it can. The whites of its eyes are showing, and it has its head down, nostrils flared. The horse is twisting and turning, trying to get the woman off.

I’m waiting my turn to ride, but I can hardly pay attention as the men put the rein in my hand and help me get my feet in the stirrups. My heart races as I watch the other woman intently. Her horse starts bucking and bucking. But then the strangest thing happens – her worry melts away, she throws a hand in the air and she grins.

Suddenly a deep, raspy voice that feels like medicine cuts through the noise and the images clear.

“What should we do?” the voice asks.

“Nothing now,” the woman says. “Let her rest and press the call button if it happens again. They’re slowing down, so I’d be surprised if she has any more.”

“OK, thank you.”

“Thank you, Cash. It helped to have you here.”

Cash.

Footsteps click across the hard floor as she leaves the room.

“Oh man,” Cash says to himself.

“You OK over there?” I ask quietly.

“Dahlia?” He moves quickly to my side. I feel his warm leg rest against my hand.

I open my eyes, and the familiarity of his face makes me feel born again. Then dizzy confusion sets in. How long have I known Cash? The few weeks Mom and I have lived at the ranch feel more like forever.

“Hey,” I say, my voice catching.